Your (optional) homework:

In your comment, tell what part(s) of the lesson speak to you. Can you elaborate any one point with examples? Write about a personal experience relating to how you approach drawing; if you ever felt disheartened or incredibly inspired, or if you disagree with me.

EDIT: I forgot to walk the talk. So here's a personal story of mine:

I've usually gotten a lot of encouragement in the form of praise (the simple "that's good!" compliments) as a child when it came to drawing; the teachers that complained about my doodling habit tend to ignore me after they found it didn't affect my grades.

Nevertheless, when it came to "art" class, teachers did not like anime or cartoons, since it was a "lower" art. So I ignored their criticisms, though it did hurt. I wasn't bad at realism or other styles, but it just wasn't my preference. After some time though, I noticed my drive to improve this style had naturally led me to reconsider other styles; learning to draw well proportioned objects, compose elements on a canvas, juxtaposing colors, among other things, was common to all art (even in caricature or surreal art). So my realism improved without actually working on it. Go with the flow, and draw what you like.

There are times when I look at the work of others and long to be able to create the same, but then I remembered if I reproduced the exact same thing (or style), that would not be interesting. There must be something I can learn or take away from this as inspiration, that I can use to better my own skill. There are no shortcuts; the process (and practice) they took to produce that work of art is the same hard determination and persistence I must walk forward with.

I remember this best from the time an ignorant boy teased me by ripping up the doujinshi page I was working on. I think was about fifteen or so, and we were at a summer ping pong club (I carried paper around and drew everywhere at this point). It was an original drawing I hadn't finished nor saved a digital copy of. I did not have the skill to piece it back together in Photoshop, so to speak, and taping it back together was a grotesque idea. It would never be the same.

I watched in shock, rage, fear and despair as my hard work fell to the ground in pieces; I was really attached to my work at the time. He probably didn't think twice about it. I did not think it was possible to redraw the page, since I did not have the skill to recreate a past idea in the same manner. My drawing was different each time I tried to draw the same thing. So I moped about for a couple months.

After a long breather, I attempted to continue drawing the page again. I found that this new page, which looked nothing like the old one, was actually better than if the one before had never been destroyed. My paneling improved, the choice of angle, shot and perspective improved. I improved during my break, as I was working on other pieces.

I got a sense then, that it didn't matter if my work was stolen, sold, copied or destroyed, because the real value of my work resided within me, and so long as I wasn't destroyed, I could always create something new, and this something new would be better than the work I did before. This was something art thieves could never take. This is the creativity that gets people hired. Suddenly the world was a freer place, and I could see how boundless the opportunities for exploration were.